What Should You Write About On Your Blog?

If you have a blog or you’ve ever considered opening one, you’d surely have wondered what you should be writing about on your blog.

Even after you’ve chosen a niche, you probably still find that you aren’t sure what exactly the source of motivation or ideas for your posts should be. If your niche is entrepreneurship, you might wonder what you’ll be writing about entrepreneurship at regular interval (say once a week) for years without running dry of ideas.

It’s a question that bewildered me for a long time and one that I get asked often.

I’ve read some bloggers give a one-size-fits-all answer to the question but that only confuse many people they seek to guide.

“Write about what you know,” they would counsel. This is good advice, but the problem is many would-be or newbie bloggers don’t believe they know anything enough to be writing about it. They see themselves not as experts who should share “what they know” but as learners.

So instead of the impracticable, one-size-fits-all answer of “write what you know,” I’m suggesting a three-pronged approach that has worked well for me:

Write about what you know

Write about what you love

Write about what you’re learning

Write about what you know

This is the conventional advice and it works to a large extent. Once you know a thing or two, it’s easy to take it for granted and assume everyone else knows it.

Wrong!

Believe me, many things you know, do effortlessly and take for granted in your niche are puzzles some other folks wish someone would help them demystify. So you could be that person. I know this because I often get asked some questions I had thought everyone should have an answer for.

So anything you know in your niche, however simple it appears to you, is a good topic to write about.

Write about what you love

In your niche, there would be some topics you’re super passionate about. Write about them. Put your relevant experiences and personality into the writing. It would resonate with like minds. I love simplicity, being vulnerable, showing up and daring one’s fears, and each time I’ve written about them, it’s been well received.

We all have some crafts and interests we’re passionate about. Study yourself and find yours. Relate them to your niche and write about them.

Let’s say you blog about technology and you love persistence, hardwork and not dreading mistakes, write about them and show how they brought about many technological breakthroughs.

Do you love cooking, swimming, watching movies, lifting weight, making beads or travelling? You could easily relate these to your niche and write dozens of valuable posts from them.

Write about what you’re learning

This is probably the best approach for everyone. If you aren’t confident you know or are passionate about anything so well as to write about it, you surely have one or two things you’re learning in relation to your niche. So write about it.

Get books and follow blogs on your niche or lateral to your niche. Consume the valuable contents, ponder over them and see how they relate to your own life and environment practically.

And here’s the decisive factor

Your blog might bear your name and headshot, but it’s not for you. It’s for your readers.

Before you write any post on it, ask yourself if it would help them. What you know, or love, or are learning, has no business on your blog or in your book unless it would create value for your readers and help them solve at least one challenge they have.

So live by that!

Question: Which of these three (or other) approaches do you use to come up with blog post ideas? You can share your thoughts by clicking here.

Comments

This is actually a problem most bloggers are obsessed with, because you might have a topic aforehand but doubt if it will resonate with your readers.
Sometimes, I had to change topics or what I want to write overnight because of this same issue.
Another way of knowing what t your readers want is through the comments, questions, suggestions etc.
Thanks Abdullah for bringing this up.

Hmmm. Apt observations there, Abdullahi. Your voice in this post hit me well! I have no doubt I was being counselled. Thumbs up.

And I absolutely agree with you on that last one being the most potent when you want to be consistent with your contents. The reason is simple. Even as you write about what you have passion for, you still find yourself learning along the line. It’s an unending process – writing about one learns. To quote Wale Adenuga’s Production, ”Life is a teacher. The more we live the more we learn”

Bottom line: there will always be ideas to write about, but it takes creativity to realise and implement this.

I agree with all the points. But i think writing about what you learn is easier to implement. If you keep writing about what you learn, you will get to know it better and soon you will learn to love it. Thats my candid opinion tho. Thanks for the lesson bro. I am in day 10 already and havnt skipped a class

I can’t imagine how improved I am until I checked my beginners article. I felt like tearing the paper and wouldn’t believe I wrote them. I’ll surely write about it on my blog when I have one.

Abdullahi,frankLY,I’m in a dilemma. Am thinking of sharecropping but that makes me feel am selling my birthright. Just tired of consuming the books at home – they say I write 24/7 and consume paper at the same speed that I write.

But,am promising that before this year runs out,I’ll surely build my blog and guest post for you.

Another fired grammar: “SERVITUDE”. I have heard it until now. Please, please, abdul, limited vocabulary fights many of us and we’re looking forward to your help. Or maybe you could… You know, per week, post like 20 new words we can learn. I bet I would be dancing round our parlour if you can grant the request.

Ya. those days when our teacher drops a new one we will shout *CHEI!!. @ Abraham, I suggest you download a dictionary on your phone and any time you come across a new word, you just search and save. It helped me.
Its better on phone where you can just immediately check it up than when you get home you might just forget.

I am passionate about hand made cards. As a matter of fact, its was funded my OND back in Federal Poly Ede. I was so good in the craft that some of my clients do order from abroad. I intend creating a blog on this. Writing on what you love is what I will suggest. At a point, I knew I had to learn an aspect of the craft and I approached a man who had been in the craft a long time. When he saw samples of all I had done and still capable of, he insist am a master myself. Then I came to appreciate my work. The beauty of this is – I never learnt it from anyone!

Hello Tosin,
There are some question bothering my mind for so long and I want you to help with the answers to the best of your ability.
1. Does the name of my site matters, and
2. Talking about affiliate marketing, does it have to be in the same line as your niche?